Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and Trevi Fountain Walking Tour

The shape of Piazza Navona recalls that of a stadium, and in effect it was built over the Stadium of Domitian which stood there before. Three fountains adorn the square, the one in the middle is Bernini’s famous Fountain of the Four Rivers. The project was entrusted to him only after long hesitation, and only when Pope Innocent X got to know of the artist’s design by indirect means; up to that time, he had been opposed to him. The fountain forms a completely harmonious whole of sculpture, ar-chitecture, and one might almost say, even of painting, in view of the painterly effects it achieves.

The four main rivers of the world are depicted here (the Nile, the Ganges, the Danube and the River Plate), respectively representing the four continents under the authority of the Pope. In the centre rises an obelisk.

One should also note the Fountain of the Moor, designed by Bernini, but executed by Mari, and the Fountain of Neptune, designed by Della Porta, but completed only at a later date.

The square is surrounded by interesting buildings, bearing witness to a period of exceptional importance for Rome, that of the two great artists, Bernini and Borromini, two outstanding masters whose creative genius left a profound mark; they often quarelled with each other, partly because of the varying support of the Popes, but in spite of this they left the mark of their originality upon the whole art of the period.

Thus it was that, right in front of Bernini’s fountain, was built Borromini’s beautiful Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, with its concave façade, characteristic of the master’s style.

Also in the square, one finds the Palazzo Pamphili by Rainaldi and the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore di Maria, in the Renaissance style. Near the Church of Sant’Agnese is Via dell’Anima, which leads to the Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima, the façade of which may perhaps be the work of Sangallo, and the Campanile by Bramante. In any case, it is a good example of Renaissance architecture, which in the interior shows the influence of German art (in fact, the Church belongs to the German community). Interesting works of art are to be seen in the interior.

Historical Background: Pantheon

Built a few years before the birth of Christ by Marcus Agrippain honour of Augustus, it was then restructured under Hadrian (around 120 AD), the Pantheon is the most imposing and complete building surviving from antiquity. It is so well preserved because from 609 AD it was converted into a church dedicated to the Madonna and therefore cherished by the pontiffs. It is complex because it mixes vaiying geometrical shapes (square, sphere, cylinder) and because it fuses two architectural styles: that typical of the temples (the pronaos) and the round plan characteristic of the thermal baths. A cylindrical wall, six metres thick, supports the dome.

The dome is 43,30 metres high and wide. It is the biggest vault ever made of masonry and is bigger even than St. Peters. In the centre of the dome is an opening nine meters wide, the only source of light. Inside there is a great central niche of mauve marble, and six smaller niches around it inlayed in multicoloured marble; the interplay of their colours fill the temple with a haunting light. Many artists are buried here: Perin del Vaga,Annibale Carracci,Taddeo Zuccari and Raphael. The Pantheon also contains tombs of members of the Savoy family King Vittorio Emanuele II and King Umberto I.